In the Midst of Such Great Perils
by Krissy Mae Anderson
Summary: ...Sister Jeannie McKay is always surprised when she receives mail from her brother... Another AUish ficlet.


"_In the Midst of Such Great Perils" by K.M. Anderson_

**Summary: **"Sister Jeannie McKay is always surprised when she receives mail from her brother." Another AU-ish ficlet.  
**Rating: **K plus/Angry Green Wombat  
**Spoilers:** Rising/Letters From Pegasus  
**Disclaimer: **The McKay siblings are not mine – I'm just borrowing them for some angst!  
**A/N: **One day I just envisioned Rodney's sister as a nun, and that plotbunny wouldn't leave my brain. And here it is now! "In Time Of Danger" prayer used in the fic is from Catholic Online website and Rodney's dialogue is from LFP. Also, it only took me about a couple of hours overall to write this one – my bunnies were very productive yesterday! This one is probably a standalone, but I am not sure about it yet. It can be considered to be in the same universe as "The Prodigal Son."

Sister Jeannie McKay is always surprised when she receives mail from her brother. He has never been good at sending letters - this seemingly simple process is always strangely complicated for someone so intelligent. Rodney has to find the stamps, but then he loses the envelope, and then the printer breaks and he won't send handwritten letters because he thinks he has awful handwriting. He used to send her postcards for her birthday and for Christmas, but last year she has gotten a letter from him informing him he is going away on a scientific expedition and doesn't know when he will be back. And now there is a package, crisp brown paper and clear tape, packed with military precision. The handwriting on the package isn't his, and the return address is a military base in the Antarctic.And yet, thisis just like Rodney – the year before he left, she got a Christmas card from Russia and a birthday card from Chile. Jeannie carefully cuts the paper away, and finds a videotape inside, with a sticker on the front - "Dr. McKay/CAN#1/SGA#P4X13S – Personal Message" is all it reveals. Jeannie dusts off her VCR, which was new when Rodney was still in college, and pops the tape in.

Before pressing the "play" button, she wonders what her brother might want to say to her. They haven't talked a lot in the recent years. Rodney used to joke he was her evil twin – even when he was younger he was always involved in everything, would engage everyone who would and wouldn't listen into a debate and was a self-described "anti-Canadian." Jeannie has always been calmer and quieter and sometimes almost stereotypically Canadian. Still, the biggest divide between them has always been their aspirations in life. Rodney knows no higher power then science, and Jeannie has dedicated her life to God. They have rarely agreed on anything in their lives, and Rodney usually is the one to storm out swearing under his breath when Jeannie respectfully disagrees with his scornful views on the Allmighty. But whatever his views, Rodney is still her brother and Jeannie will never stop loving him and praying for him. She presses the play button and the tape begins to play, and Rodney is there, just as she remembers him – slightly scruffy and intense, and probably thinking up a new world-changing invention that very moment. He looks at her from the TV screen, his face tense and his eyes slightly unfocused, the Canadian flag patch on his discarded jacket a distracting splash of color in the background.

"_Jeannie? This is your brother, Rodney ... obviously! I wanna s-say, um ... I wanna say something. Uh ... family is important. I-I've come to realise that because the people here have become a sort of a ... kind of a surrogate family to me_." He smiles and Jeannie wonders about the people Rodney is talking about, but is happy that he has found some coworkers who he has become close to. He's always so lonely… Rodney continues, his face relaxing slightly: "_Now, I know what you're thinking: I've never really been the poster child for that kind of sentiment but, uh, when_-" The audio suddenly goes silent and Jeannie frowns as the tension creeps back into her brother's eyes despite his smile, and suddenly she knows that something is very wrong. "-_I really do wish you the best, you know, and I'm sorry we weren't closer. Perhaps, um_..." the audio disappears again, and Jeannie wonders what Rodney is saying and what the military does not want her to know: "-_perhaps one day we can be, and I would like that_." The tape cuts off suddenly, and Jeannie is left with the unwanted knowledge of the hidden horror in her brother's eyes, and she wonders, in a moment of weakness, if she will ever see him again. But she overcomes it, because she knows that Rodney never gives up, and as his sister, she is not allowed to be weak. She shuts off the TV, and kneels on the floor and whispers a prayer that she never thought she would need to utter: "_O God, Who knowest us to be set in the midst of such great perils, that, by reason of the weakness of our nature, we cannot stand upright, grant us such health of mind and body, that those evils which we suffer for our sins we may overcome through Thine assistance_…" And she knows that He will.


End file.
